Erin Maxwell
Noticing Blog 10-10
Each week, typically on Friday mornings, my class has a
spelling test. The test consists of ten
to twelve words that have been emphasized in vocabulary homework. My students
must only study how the word is spelled and spell the word correctly to
pass. Yesterday, while I was leading
instruction in a social studies lesson with a supplemental worksheet, a
question arose regarding the phrase “part of speech”. Not only were my students unaware of the
meaning of this phrase, they were unable to provide examples or “parts” of
speech. I then redirected the lesson
slightly by writing the terms noun, verb, adjective, and adverb on our smart
board. I explained that these are
examples of parts of speech. Some
students commented that those words were familiar, which was promising. I
called on students to define each term, however, not one of the student I
selected correctly identified the any of the terms. My MT interjected saying something to the
affect of “I think only one or two will know this”. Although this news was somewhat discouraging,
it was something that my MT fears may have been glanced over in previous years,
as their teachers were so transient.
Teaching parts of speech to a third grade class may not seem
“grade-level appropriate”, however, punishing students for something they have
never been taught, and therefore do not know would only further hinder their
growth. My students were able to clarify
their in many cases muddled definitions of the various parts of speech and we
were able to continue on with our lesson.
I think you are to commended for trying to modify your instruction on-the-fly based on what information you were gathering during the lesson itself. Unfortunately, some of the "basics" that you were covering also seemed to elude the students. I think what this case shows is that not only should a teacher be prepared to be adaptive, as you were, based on the students' evidenced understanding, but also that when a teacher "covers" certain material, it should always be rooted in what students do know. Asking students "What do you need in a sentence in order for it to make sense?" is most likely a question they can collaboratively answer. Asking to define the appropriate "part of speech" is an abstract construct...by beginning with what students already know, you can scaffold their understanding towards the more abstract ideas.
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